Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark
December 6, 2014 | runtime = 111 minutes | country = Japan | language = Japanese | budget = | gross = | preceded by = (Chronological) "The Faraway Promised Land" (Production) Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Voyage of Remembrance | followed by = (Chronological) "The Forever War" (Production) TBA }} Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (宇宙戦艦ヤマト2199 星巡る方舟 Uchū Senkan Yamato 2199: Hoshi-Meguru Hakobune) is an original movie spin-off of Space Battleship Yamato 2199. Summary Prologue A small group of surviving United Nations Cosmo Marines wearing armored spacesuits attempt to radio for help from the shelter of their demolished outpost on the Moon, with no success. The bodies of their fallen comrades lie nearby, and Sergeant Hajime Saito keeps vigil as their commanding officer dies from his injuries. Outside, an unfamiliar vessel is spotted passing overhead, and then their rescue ship is seen approaching from the direction of Earth--the battleship Kirishima. After boarding, Saito furiously pushes his way onto the bridge to confront the senior officer, demanding to know how the slaughter of his fellow troops could have happened. Without turning to face him, Admiral Ryu Hijikata explains that they were providing escort to the unfamiliar ship, and that the UNCM base was a secondary priority. He goes on to to identify the vessel as the space battleship Yamato. Thunder Across the Stars Seven months later, the super dreadnought Sehrgut II under the command of Basiv Vandevel leads a small fleet of Garmillas ships, survivors of the Raid on Balun, across intergalactic space toward the Large Magellanic Cloud and home. A massive flame-like energy beam suddenly appears directly ahead of them and vaporizes several ships at once. The fleet opens fire on an enemy that is far out of range of their own weapons, but the beam appears again and again, eliminating even the few who manage to escape the destruction of Sehrgut II and attempt to flee. Aboard the flagship Megaluda, Gatlantis Governor-General Goran "Thunder" Dagam savors his victory and orders his forces forward. In another part of deep space, the damaged Garmillas carrier Lanbea limps along. The ship's acting commanding officer, Major Fommt Berger, is in his quarters watching a hologram of a young woman named Melia Rikke. Berger receives word that they have been ordered to rendezvous with a task force led by another carrier, Mirangal. The task force arrives and commences repairs to Lanbea. Mirangal's commander and a friend of Berger's, Colonel Neredia Rikke, comes aboard to inform Berger of the new détente between Yamato and the Great Garmillas Empire. Berger angrily rejects it, desperate to take revenge for the deaths of General Erich Domel and his fellow officers at the Battle of the Rainbow Star Cluster. Rikke changes the subject and advises him that they should leave quickly, due to rumors of a "witch" and vessels going missing in the sector. Berger mocks her superstition until he begins to notice singing. Neither the colonel nor the bridge crew can hear it. Berger suddenly becomes lost in the music. Meanwhile, as the Yamato prepares to leave the Large Magellanic Cloud, a calm has fallen over the crew with the new peace agreement. Warrant Officer Mikage Kiryu mulls over her experiences since leaving Iscandar, but a call reminds her that she is late for her shift. As she makes a mad dash to her station, she collides with Ensign Sho Sawamura and runs off, leaving an angered Sawamura to vent to his fellow fighter pilots. Kiryu works during her shift to develop translation programs for the Jirel and Gatlantean languages. Lieutenant Susumu Kodai pays a visit to Admiral Juzo Okita's quarters to share tea. He notes the ailing admiral's choice in music, "Muss i denn," a folk song about parting and reunions, which brings the conversation to the lieutenant's deceased elder brother. After taking his leave, Kodai enjoys time with several of his shipmates--until the vessel is shaken by a surprise attack from a wing of Gatlantis fighters. Racing to his station on the bridge, Kodai sees that no other senior officers have arrived, and in their absence, he assumes command. Yamato is approached from behind by Dagam's fleet, the Gutaba Expedition Group. Dagam orders them to surrender, intent on seizing Yamato's wave motion gun for the Gatlantis Empire, but Kodai flatly refuses. He orders Yamato to make a run for a nearby free floating planet, and is pursued by Dagam's forces. As the fight continues, executive officer Shiro Sanada enters the bridge but allows Kodai to continue in command, watching his newfound leadership with a sense of satisfaction. Before Yamato can reach the planet, Dagam opens fire with his warship's Flame Strike Gun, teleporting the beam toward its target. The blast consumes a Gatlantean assault cruiser and strikes Yamato's wave motion shield. Knowing that another blast will overwhelm the shields, the Earth battleship dives into the pitted structure of the planet for cover. Dagam's vanguard follows them in. Drawn by the weapons fire, jellyfish-like organisms emerge from resting places inside the rocks, latch onto the ships, and begin draining them of energy. One by one, the surviving Gatlanteans lose power and crash. In a desperate effort to avoid the same fate, Kodai orders the ship to go to warp. The creatures are blasted off the hull and Yamato escapes. Where the Impossible Becomes Reality After being knocked unconscious by the forced warp, the crew wake up to see that Yamato has entered a vast region of gray mists surrounding a multi-ringed planet, seemingly nowhere in charted space. They also realize that the ship is being piloted by an outside force. Kodai is immediately reminded of a telepathic attack on the ship months earlier. Yamato flies toward the planet and eventually encounters a massive alien ruin, where it sets anchor and finally comes to a rest. Kodai and a survey team take the all-environment Ki-8 "Stork," a vehicle left from the Izumo Plan, to explore the planet's ocean below. As the Stork dives, Kiryu begins to hear strange singing and radio contact with Yamato is lost. The Stork bursts out of the ocean into open skies and a tropical landscape when they suddenly intercept a Garmillas SOS signal. The Stork switches to land mode and drives through the trees until it becomes stuck, forcing everyone except Analyzer to dismount and search on foot. Kiryu realizes that the jungle they are traversing is an exact copy of the Amazon rainforest that she and her mother visited during her childhood. Communications officer Yoshikazu Aihara locates the source of the SOS: the wreck of the [[IJN Yamato|Imperial Japanese battleship Yamato]], sunk more than two centuries ago and now at rest in the middle of the forest. The landing party enters the battleship, and almost immediately the door leading outside disappears and Aihara loses contact with the Stork. Rather than the interior of a wrecked battleship, they find what Kiryu recognizes as the same elegant Yamato Hotel that she visited while she was growing up. The people that they discover inside are Garmillas, in Earth civilian dress, without weapons, and trapped in the hotel just like them: Rikke, Berger, an old war veteran, Vance Baren, and a young hotheaded fighter pilot, Klim Melhe. The Garmillans see the new arrivals as Zaltz soldiers and not as humans. The weapons of the Yamato crew suddenly disappear and they find themselves in civilian attire. The two groups cautiously accept one another and settle in for a long stay. Rikke accompanies Kiryu to her room, where the young warrant officer notices a book left on a table. Rikke describes it as a story from her childhood, which confuses Kiryu, who perceives it as a book about Helen Keller. Rikke continues her story about a young witch who traveled to a "blue land" to find friends, but whose telepathic powers lead to suspicion and hatred, forcing her to find a new home. After leaving Kiryu's room, Rikke encounters Berger, who hints at how Kiryu is nearly identical to her younger sister, Melia, but the colonel seems to miss the reference. At that moment, Ensign Sawamura cries out, having fallen to the bottom of a hole that appeared in the floor beneath him. Days after arriving at the hotel, Kiryu notes in her personal log that Sawamura’s hole seems to be the only hope for escape. Despite both crews working together to dig deeper, progress is limited, and food rations are starting to run low. As Kiryu wonders how long the tentative peace will last, she hears a voice saying in the Jirel language, "Hunger awakens conflict." Sawamura shows his trust in her perceptions, and the two bond over shared rations. Kodai and science officer Kaoru Niimi speak privately about the inevitability that the Garmillas will learn their true identities, but Kodai remains faithful to his brother’s vision of peaceful relations and cooperation with the Garmillas. On day six, tensions begin to mount. Kiryu hears Berger having a nightmare about the death of Melia Rikke and the scar he received while attempting to save her. He wakes up as Kiryu comes to investigate, but Berger shrugs off her concern. Later, Melhe complains about the futility of digging into the hole any more, and disgusted by the presence of Kodai's crew, storms off. Kodai tries chatting with Berger, but unknowingly sours the moment when he brings the conversation to the late General Domel, and Berger excuses himself. As calm temporarily returns, Baren recalls Berger’s past for Kodai’s team, telling them how an upstanding officer of Garmillas grew embittered after the death of his beloved and the loss of his fellow officers fighting Yamato. Kiryu finds Berger in another part of the hotel. They start to open to one another, and then Kiryu tries asking about the Jirel. Berger explains that they are like witches from old stories, and confirms that except for two surviving Jirel on Garmillas, the species has gone extinct. Melhe goes up to the fourth floor and rages at the situation, but is held back by his own hunger. He turns to see Rikke sitting inside a stairway leading up to higher floors they had not seen before. Her eyes glow and she asks if he is hungry. The Way Out On the Megaluda, Gatlantean Prime Minister Shifual Sabera requests a report on Dagam’s progress. He has few leads, but tries to offer the Yamato instead. Sabera does not accept this consolation and berates Dagam, demanding the "World of Tranquility" and its cloaking technology, or his death in compensation. Immediately after the transmission ends, a bridge officer reports that traces of Yamato's warp have been found. Against Sabera's wishes, Dagam orders a pursuit that leads them to the mist-enshrouded space and the mysterious planet at its center--the place they have been seeking all along. Rikke's Garmillas task force detects them from their position in orbit of the planet, and aboard Lanbea, the real Colonel Rikke curses their luck. In the hotel, Kiryu spills a bucket of water and hearkens back to the story of Helen Keller. The young warrant officer looks down at the water and sees Jirel writing. The revealed message bears an instruction to go to the “eleventh level” to see the world as it really is. The elevator opens, and Kiryu steps in. At the top floor, she climbs a ladder onto the bridge of the old battleship overlooking the jungle, only to hear laughter. She spots Melhe clutching a bag of food and pointing a gun at her. Kodai, Berger, and the others follow after Kiryu. When they reach the battleship bridge, they find Melhe holding Kiryu at gunpoint and yelling crazily that the food is his, despite Kiryu’s protest that it is actually not food. When Kodai asks how he obtained a gun, "Rikke" offers Kodai and Berger their own pistols, holstered on their belts. Sawamura tackles Melhe and disarms him, knocking over the paper bag and revealing that it is full of skulls. “Rikke” exposes Kodai and his people as Yamato crew members and encourages the Garmillas to kill them. Berger and Kodai instinctively draw their weapons on each other, but Kodai lowers his and offers the major his respect and trust. Berger turns his gun toward the false "Rikke," aware that the real Neredia Rikke would have recognized the resemblance between her sister Melia and Kiryu, and that she would have called him by his given name. "Rikke" confesses to not having probed their memories adequately. At that moment, a pillar of fire from the Gatlantis Flame Strike Gun erupts from the sky and the ocean above breaks through, inundating the forest, the wrecked battleship, and everyone on it. In the next moment, the illusions are gone, Garmillans and humans alike have been returned to their uniforms and are standing inside an alien control room, and the woman masquerading as Rikke shows herself as a Jirel shaman, Lorelai Loer. She reveals that she had sought to telepathically play the two crews against each other like so many who had invaded before, but Berger, Kodai, and their people had found a way to cooperate. The planet, Shambleau, was originally constructed by a species called Aquarius. Long after the Aquarius had spread their genes across space and vanished, the "celestial ark" of Shambleau became sacred ground to the Jirel people, and served as a refuge for visiting pilgrims when the last of their kind was wiped out. Kiryu begins to decipher the ancient mechanisms, and falls into a trance while reciting the instructions left behind. To unlock the planet, the descendants of the Aquarius--the humans, Garmillans, and Jirel who all carry the Aquarius genetic code--must join once more. Kodai takes Berger's hand and extends his other hand to Loer, promising her a better tomorrow. As Shambelau is torn apart by its own mechanisms and by the Gatlantis assault, the Ki-8 piloted by Analyzer arrives. Defending the World of Tranquility :For more details, see Battle of Shambleau With repairs complete and the Yamato landing party returning, Sanada grants Kodai his request to take command during the coming battle. Aboard Lanbea, a shuttle lands on the flight deck just long enough for Baren to disembark, and abruptly takes off again, heading for Mirangal. Berger assumes command of the Garmillas task force from the Mirangal bridge, leaving Colonel Rikke behind aboard Lanbea. The united Garmillas fleet and Yamato rise from the planet's atmosphere and launch fighters. An opening blast from the Flame Strike Gun vaporizes several Garmillas ships. Sanada notes that the warp signature used to transport the beam is similar to the instant matter transporter deployed by Domel at the Rainbow Star Cluster. Kodai relays the information to Berger, and they are able to calculate the location of the subsequent blasts and dodge them. As the two fleets fight on, the surface of Shambleau and the surrounding space slowly melt away. Prime Minister Sabera contacts Dagam again and berates him for attacking the planet she intended to present to the ruler of the empire. She goes on to belittle Dagam until, in an uncontrollable rage, he drives his sword through the projector and then through the flagship's captain for contacting Sabera without his knowledge. The battle turns agains Dagam's forces, and in frustration, he breaks away and heads directly towards Shambleau and the Lanbea, which is now trapped inside the exposed lattice structure of the celestial ark. While Yamato moves to intercept Megaluda, Berger leads the fight against the Gutaba Expeditionary Force. Both sides take heavy losses, including Melhe in his fighter plane, despite Sawamura’s attempt to save him. Mirangal makes significant gains, but only at a great cost. With smoke filling the bridge and Berger himself wounded, he takes Mirangal's helm and attempts a suicide run on the last remaining assault cruiser. Dagam orders Megaluda to jettison its Flame Strike Gun mechanism, hurling it toward their pursuer. Yamato barely avoids it, and then fires one of its rocket anchors into the Gatlantis flagship. The two vessels swing around one another, spiraling in and firing at increasingly close range. Megaluda's defenses fall, and the shockwave of the explosion breaks through the structure holding Lanbea, setting it free. Yamato escapes the blast with little additional damage. Aboard the wrecked Mirangal, Berger waits for rescue and mutters to his dear Melia that he once again failed to join her. The last of the Shambleau illusion is finally lifted, revealing a massive structure far larger than the planet the survivors had fought to protect. Departures As the Yamato and Lanbea hold position, Kiryu notes in her log that their week-long stay in the hotel was only half a day outside, and she muses about the intentions of the Aquarius in leaving so many descendants across the cosmos. Shambleau fades into the darkness of space, headed to places unknown. The human and Garmillan crews exchange a brief farewell salute, and are surprised by "Muss i denn" playing over the communication channel, a gift from Admiral Okita. Lanbea leaves for the planet Garmillas, and Yamato resumes its journey toward the Milky Way Galaxy and Earth. Epilogue More than one month later, society on Earth is beginning to break down as shortages, riots, and contamination become increasingly frequent. At the Far East Headquarters of the United Nations Cosmo Force, Admiral Hijikata and Chief Executive Heikuro Todo discuss the Yamato's mission time and wonder if it will succeed. Sergeant Saito breaks through security and demands a word with Hijikata, complaining about Cosmo Marines being ordered to fire on fellow humans as riot control. Hijikata responds that he still has faith in his friend Okita's success. At that moment, a communications officer interrupts with a report of a [[Memories of the Blue Planet|transmission from Yamato at the edge of the solar system]]. Analysis *The movie occurs between the events of "The Faraway Promised Land" and "The Forever War." An official summaryOfficial Yamato 2199 website story summary http://yamato2199.net/about/story_a.html describes the story as taking place after Yamato leaves the Large Magellanic Cloud. The two-month gap between these episodes provides much more time for additional incidents and encounters, whereas "Memories of the Blue Planet" starts in the immediate wake of the [[Battle of the Galactic Theater Gate|fight between Yamato and Dessler's forces]] in "The Forever War" and during the final leg of the journey home. *The quotation at the start of the film that Kiryu finds written in the Jirel language inside the Shambleau control room ("By the wall, I will say a word to you. Take my word. Give ear to my instructions.") is taken from a partially recovered Sumerian poem telling the Sumerian creation and flood myths. In it, the god Enki warns King Ziusudra that the other gods will bring a great flood, and that to survive the catastrophe, he must create a massive vessel to carry the life of the Earth. The association with an ancient flood suggests a similarity to the destructive water planet Aquarius depicted in Final Yamato, and may have potential implications for future Yamato 2199 stories. *The film's prologue takes place immediately after Yamato breaks from Earth orbit in "Escape the Jupiter Zone." The apparent timing of the attack on the lunar base and the marines' radio report of "carrier-based fighters" strongly suggest the attack came from the same Garmillas carrier that investigated the hidden Yamato launch site in "We're Off Into the Sea of Stars." *The epilogue is set during the events of "Memories of the Blue Planet," just before Yamato reestablishes contact with Earth. *Although Gatlantean ships and people appear occasionally throughout the first Space Battleship Yamato 2199 series, the movie introduces Gatlantis as an adversary of Yamato. This contrasts with their role as nominal allies of Yamato against a mutual enemy, the Great Garmillas Empire, during the Riot on Prison Planet 17. *The Gatlantis Empire uses the word "Terron" for humans, borrowed directly from the Garmillas language. In Gatlantean, the word Yamato is distorted into "Yamatte." *The drill missile bomber commanded by Vance Baren and damaged at the Battle of the Rainbow Star Cluster was safely retrieved by Lanbea, but repairs proved to be impossible and is shown being abandoned in deep space. *The smaller ships accompanying Sehrgut II are painted in the striped pattern of Gremdt Goer's personal flagship, marking them as assigned to Goer's command prior to the destruction of the Balun base. *The main bridge viewscreen of Sehrgut II, shot and disabled in a fit of panic by Herm Zoellik ("Over the Black Light"), was removed and not replaced. Questions *Why was Sehrgut II--under the command of Vandevel and not his superior, Goer--leading a few dozen ships instead of the three thousand that had survived the Raid on Balun? **It is possible the fleet broke up into separate formations with different destinations across the Empire, since the massive gathering of ships at Balun was comprised of multiple fleets from across Garmillas territory. **Possible conflict between officers and soldiers who followed the traitor Zoellik and those who remained loyal to Dessler may have played a part in keeping these ships apart from others. It may have also influenced Goer's absence from the flagship of the traitor that he personally executed. *How can Mikage Kiryu and the late Melia Rikke resemble each other so closely, and is it related to the reason that Yuki Mori and Yurisha Iscandar are so similar ("Out of the Forest of Memory")? Noteworthy Dialogue Behind the Scenes *Until April 2015, fans had used at least two English translations of the movie title, Star-Voyaging Ark and Ark of the Stars. The production studio, Xebec, ultimately chose the title Odyssey of the Celestial Ark.Official movie site product page (scroll down for home video package image) *Production error: Before and during Dagam's sneak attack on Sehrgut II and its fleet, the Large Magellanic Cloud repeatedly appears and disappears directly ahead of the Garmillas ships and directly behind the Gatlantis ships in the original theatrical release of the film[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw1C2cmNzBY Preview of the first minutes of Odyssey of the Celestial Ark, posted by Shochiku on December 3, 2014]. This mistake is fixed in the home video release. Awards and Honors *2015 Seiun Award for Best Dramatic Presentation"Yamato 2199, Moyashimon, Aoi Honō Win Seiun Awards," Anime News Network, August 29, 2015"2015 List of Seiun Award Winners," Federation of the Science Fiction Fan Groups of Japan Cast (Alphabetized by family name)[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=16186 Anime News Network data on Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Star-Voyaging Ark ] *Kenji Akabane as Yasuo Nanbu *Kazusa Amagai as Shiori Nagakura *Shigeru Chiba as Sakezo Sado *Yuuki Chiba as Kenjiro Ota *Minori Chihara as Miezela Celestella (flashback only) *Yuya Chikaki as Sho Sawamura *Cho as Analyzer *Masashi Ebara as Osamu Yamanami *Saki Fujita as Jun Ichikawa *Keiji Fujiwara as Isami Enomoto *Shinya Fukumatsu as Vance Baren *Kenji Hamada as Quiche Tolgien *Kouki Harasawa as Shinpei Iwata *Daisuke Hirakawa as Hiroki Shinohara *Ryou Hirohashi as Milt Evans *Aya Hisakawa as Kaoru Niimi *Yoshimasa Hosoya as Saburo Kato *Kikuko Inoue as Starsha Iscandar (flashback only) *Fumihide Ise as Gatlantean soldier *Kouji Ishii as Bodom Mace *Unshou Ishizuka as Ryu Hijikata *Shizuka Itou as Melda Dietz (flashback only) *Junko Iwao as Loerelei Loer *Yuko Kaida as Shifual Sabera *Ryūichi Kijima as Tetsuya Kitano *Taira Kikumoto as Gatlantean soldier *Masato Kokubun as Yoshikazu Aihara *Keisuke Koumoto as Kirishima navigator *Houko Kuwashima as Yuki Mori *Takamasa Mogi as Garmillas soldier *Shinobu Matsumoto as Shigeru Hayashi *Katsuji Mori as Goro Kiryu *Satomi Moriya as Miki Saijo *Mugihito as Hikozaemon Tokugawa *Eriko Nakamura as Mikage Kiryu and Melia Rikke *Joji Nakata as Wolf Fleurken (flashback only) *Shinji Ogawa as Heikuro Todo *Akio Ohtsuka as Erich Domel (flashback only) *Houchu Ohtsuka as Shiro Sanada *Daisuke Ono as Susumu Kodai *Ryuzaburo Otomo as Goran Dagam *Jiro Saito as Toshiro Amagi *Manabu Sakamaki as Gatlantean solider *Rina Satou as Makoto Harada *Mie Sonozaki as Neredia Rikke *Takayuki Sugo as Juzo Okita *Kazuhiro Sunseki as Mikio Nemoto *Junichi Suwabe as Fommt Berger *Kenichi Suzumura as Daisuke Shima *Shinnosuke Tachibana as Klim Melhe *Toshitsugu Takashina as Gen Furuhashi *Masahiko Tanaka as Isla Paracas *Rie Tanaka as Akira Yamamoto *Hiroki Tasaka as Basiv Vandevel *Hiroki Touchi as Hajime Saito *Koji Yusa as Kiyoshi Toyama *Hiroshi Tsuchida as Susumu Yamazaki *Shinpachi Tsuji as Wemm Heidern (flashback only) *Aya Uchida as Yuria Misaki *Hidenari Ugaki as Meiser Drum *Kiyohito Yoshikai as Masaru Kurata References Gallery Image:StarVoyagingArkTeaser.png|Teaser movie poster Image:NerediaRikke.png|Captain Neredia Rikke commands the Garmillas carrier Mirangal. Image:StarVoyagingArkYamatoGelvadesFighters.png|''Yamato'' is escorted by its fighters and the Gevaldes class ship Mirangal above a mysterious planet. Category:Films